[Flashback] Lessons

[Aidara]

17th of Summer, 510 AV There was something about the early morning that was lost once the sun broke too high over the mountain peaks. Perhaps it was the sleepy silence that hovered low over everything like a dense fog. Yet the view was pristine. Clear for miles in every direction, the horizon delicious shades of orange and pink, with various shades of yellow and purple reaching over the snowcapped peaks, like slender fingers, a deep blue clinging to the valley and the city of Wind Reach as it continued to sleep. The colors and the silence were just two of the reasons Aidara loved the mornings. The third reason was just a tiny speck on the glorious horizon, but it was there. But there she sat, enjoying the beauty of the morning as she literally watched it slip away. The colors were slowly fading from the sky, leaving behind a clear, crisp, cloudless blue. With her booted feet tucked under her for warmth, Addy adjusted the fit of her coat, pulling the wool lined collar snug around her mouth and nose. Beautiful, but freezing. She cupped her hands around her mouth, breathing slowly to warm them. Her fingers had begun to tingle and she couldn’t really afford to lose feeling in her hands at this moment in time. Her gaze swung from the changing sky to the earth far, far below. She moved to tuck a strand of dark red hair behind her ear as she peered over the edge of the cliff, only inches from where she sat. For anyone even remotely afraid of heights, the sight would send them reeling. It was a sheer drop directly below her; the plummet ending in a copse of evergreens, the small outcropping of stone could barely be glimpsed through the heavily needle-laden branches. All in all, it didn’t look like a prime spot to fall, or land. Only because she was waiting for it, Aidara noticed the speck in the distance growing steadily larger. Slapping her hands together and rubbing furiously in a last ditch attempt to warm them, the Inarta pushed herself to her feet. From her pockets she withdrew a pair of fingerless mittens and slipped them on. She then fitted an even thicker leather glove over top of her mittened left hand, pulling it until it reached almost to her elbow. Flexing her hand to wiggle her fingers deeper into the glove, Addy raised her eyes to the sky once more, scanning back and forth before picking up on the now rather large black dot in the sky. Taking two fingers and placing them between her lips, the woman was able to produce a rather high pitched whistle. Repeating the sound three times, she waited. A slow smile crept across her lips as she saw the dark shape in the sky suddenly change direction, veering towards her. The sound of wings could be heard now, the shape of a large bird easy to pick out against the brightening sky. It was that moment that the sun decided to make its entrance, blazing above the mountain peaks now- and directly in Addy’s eyes. Grumbling with distaste, she raised her right arm to shade her face. Blinking sunspots from her eyes, Aidara’s gaze sought out the raptor. It wasn’t hard to find, as it had folded its wings and was dive-bombing towards her. Many peoples first reaction to a bird of prey flying towards their head would to be duck, cover and run away screaming. The red haired woman just smiled and whistled shrilly again, raising her left arm a little higher as the falcon abruptly spread its wings a few feet above her, talons thrust forward as it attempted to break in midair. Still winging rapidly in attempt to hover a moment and slow its momentum, the bird collided with Aidara’s arm, talons grappling with the supple leather as it fought to keep balance after the sudden impact. Addy’s upper arm flexed with the force of the landing, absorbing the energy resulting in the crash, keeping her arm steady and raised to help the bird with its landing. It was clear that it was still young, for the older raptors were much more graceful, some even with their own special flare. “That’s alright, Artemis, I got you. You’re alright. Shhhh.. Shhh..” Like when one spoke to a baby, her voice went up a couple octaves as she cooed. With quick, deft movements the jesses were attached to Artemis and Addy wasted no time slowly pulling the birds hood up and over its head. It was still in training, and she had to be careful; especially as she walked back in the direction of the gates, through the Courtyard of the Sky. The multitudes of people would surely overwhelm the wary bird, as he was not completely broken of his natural fear of humans, but she took the risk anyway. It was the fastest way back, and maybe she would be able to handle it. Novices weren't normally in charge of training birds, but Aidara had devoted most of her time to the raptors, and she had a sudden surge of confidence. The closer they got to the sound of the crowds, the more the bells on the falcon’s ankle jingled as he shifted nervously from foot to foot. Since he was hooded, he would be spared the sights and fast movements of the courtyard, but the normal sounds people make multiplied once they formed a crowd, and they assaulted the poor bird from all sides. Still crooning softly to him, Addy stroked a hand gently down his feathered back, hoping to distract him from focusing on the noises that bothered him. Abruptly, an eagle flew low overhead on its way back to the aeries, stirring up dust and sand with its powerful wing strokes. Startled, Artemis opened his own wings and flapped in panic as he was pelted with tiny stones. Cursing under her breath, Aidara reached out her hand to try and calm the raptor and was rewarded with a sharp nip to the exposed fingers of her right hand. Grunting and biting down on her bottom lip to keep from crying out, and ignoring the blood the seeped from the deep, but small, wound Addy curved her left arm in towards her chest, hunching over to protect the frightened bird with her body. She held this position for a matter of moments, though taking care to keep away from the sharp beak this time, until the wind settled down again. “Stupid, stupid idea. I should have gone around, not through.” Cursing herself once more and grumbling quietly under her breath, Addy started back across the courtyard. Her pace quickened, though she took care to hold her left arm firm as not to jostle Artemis, still softly petting his feathers with her right hand. Yes, the bird had to be gentled at some point, but it was a mistake to try and ease the process along herself. She was only supposed to take him out for a practice flight, in hopes of him showing some potential and bringing back even a mouse. No luck in that department. the same as his half-dozen other flights, he came back with an empty beak and talons. She would have to tell Val about the failure in the hunt department, but she was going to do her best to leave out the error in her decision making. Reaching the edge of the courtyard, angling her path towards where the gates were located. Passing by the Valintar’s office, the woman and the bird stepped into the caverns that lead to the Sanikas Gates. It was rather dark at first, before her eyes managed to adjust, as someone had forgotten to light a few of the torches along the way. Either that or they’d just burned down and smothered. “Not much action around here today, eh, Artemis? There’s a good boy, it’s okay..” She had kept her tone light and cheery, though the empty cavern amplified and added some echo into the mix, which startled the falcon into nervously shifting his talons again, clenching and unclenching around her arm. Obviously he couldn’t answer, and Aidara more spoke aloud to the bird out of habit than anything else. Having spent as much time as them as she had, one begins to build relationships with the raptors similar to those with people; though the conversations do tend to be a little one sided. Turning around the final bend, Aidara came face to face with a bronze cage. In fact, she was so intent on soothing the agitated bird that she wasn’t watching where she was going and nearly walked into the contraption. Stopping short caused Artemis to flap his wings and squawk angrily. He was blind after all, and Addy was making mistake after mistake. Anxious now, Aidara lifted the bar to the cage, stepped onto the lift and replaced the bar. She tugged on the lever four times, giving more soothing noises and pats as she waited for the drudge to begin to lift the cage. By the time it began to creep upwards Aidara had managed to sooth the bird, though his feathers were ruffled in a rather indignant way, his body turned away from Addy the best he could in the bird version of the cold shoulder. Smiling and shaking her head, the woman tilted her face upwards to gauge their progress. Almost there. A weary sigh and she swiped dark red strands of hair from her face. The way this day was starting out, it was going to be a long one. As the cage rumbled to the top, Aidara could almost hear the poor drudge who had to haul the thing up and down all day sigh with relief. She lifted the bar, stepped out into the room, turning and placing the bar back into its cradle, she tugged the chain once, only turning away when the cage once more began to descend. Moving to the most shadowed corner of the room, Aidara began to very slowly remove the hood from Artemis’s head. She did this in the darkness to let the birds eyes adjust after being hooded for so long, and to keep him calm. Checking the bells attached to his leg, she then removed the jesses and dropped her arm a short ways, but quickly, forcing Artemis to spread his wings and soar up into the rafters. He circled a few times before finding his nest and settling down with an irritated flick of his tail feathers at her. “What did you do to offend him so, I wonder?” came the soft, crackly voice. Carefully removing her leather glove and placing it on the table against the wall, along with the hood, Aidara turned around to face the kindly old man. He stood there smiling at her, as she pulled off her mittens as well. Val was a kindly old man, and the sight of him always brought a smile to her face. This was no exception. Agitated as she was, Addy laughed and stepped forward to embrace him. “You’re up early Val. The torches along the way guttered out, so I assumed there would be no reason for you to be up yet, what with no one at the gates.” Val cared for the raptors and the Sanikas gate alike, and many people debated whether he preferred the company of the visitors or his birds more. Aidara was sure, however, that he was the only person in Wind Reach that loved those bird brains more than she did. “I took Artemis out for a fly like you asked. Still nothing, Val. I don’t know what we’re going to do, but he’s not even catching enough to feed himself, if he were free.” Her green eyes flickered to the rafters again, where the bird in mention was still studiously ignoring them both. “I…uh..” The words fumbled over her tongue. She couldn’t lie to Val, not while he watched her so intently, and trusted her so completely with the birds even though she was just a novice. “Made a mistake? Lass, it happens to all of us. What did you do? It can’t be that bad, now, can it? He doesn’t seem hurt, no missing feathers or wings. All of his toes still seem to be there.” He was teasing her now, an old wrinkled hand resting gently on her shoulder. As stooped as he was with age, the elderly Inarta was still centimeters taller than she was, so it was easy for him to capture her eyes. Sighing, she mumbled her confession, trying her best to look away from that kindly gaze- and failing “I took a shortcut through the Courtyard of the Sky. I thought….maybe he needed practice around crowds and the people. I don’t know what I was thinking, I should have known better…He bit me, and I think I hurt the situation more than I helped.” Humbled, Aidara finally did break the gaze in remembrance of her wound. It still oozed a little, but most of the blood had dried on her fingers. “Aidara.” His tone was gentle, but firm, “You did nothing wrong. You’ve been around these birds long enough to know that your instinct is correct. You have a knack for this, child. I’m sure Artemis would have bitten even me. It happens to all of us, at one time or another. I don’t know why you’re being so hard on yourself, it is not as if this is your first wound sustained by beak or talons.” It was rather amazing that Aidara had been able to make it all the way back to the gatehouse without healing her fingers. Val’s words fell on semi-deaf ears, though Addy nodded absently to show she was at least trying to listen. The need to heal had taken her. A deep breath and she closed her eyes. A glance at her injured hand told Val everything he needed to know, and with a small smile and a shake of his head he left the woman and went back to his comfortably padded bench in silence. Though she didn’t consciously realize she was doing so, Addy sank to the floor, crossing her legs and resting her injured right hand on her right knee. She was focused, breathing deeply and drawing her consciousness into a small corner of her mind, folding it up and neatly locking it away in an imagined box, if you will. Void of feeling and awareness of anything but her power, Aidara reached into her center. Although she only had one gnosis mark, her study of medicine told her what to do. The cut on her finger, although deep, was small and within her power. To be able to access her power and use it as she willed, Addy had to visualize in her mind what exactly she wanted to do. It wasn’t the only way to go about it, but it worked best for her, though it was rather time consuming. She was born with her gnosis mark, blessed by Rak’Keli for reasons unknown, and therefore had the innate ability to heal with the powers of the goddess, but that wasn’t to say one didn’t get rusty with lack of practice. Visualizing a hand, her center a glowing golden mass, fingers plucked at the fibers of her power, drawing them from her mind and into her torn skin. She found the damaged capillaries and easily finished the clotting of the blood that had already begun. Next, she moved through each layer of skin and repaired the tissues, weaving her power between the torn edges as she literally knitted them back together. The epidermis had been torn away, so the tender pink skin of the dermis was the last to be repaired. The wound would be tender, and all the woman had really been able to do was repair the skin, but it would suffice. Letting the fiber of power fall back into the glowing mass, the hand reached over and clicked the lock on the box that held her awareness. Starting, Aidara opened her eyes. Even the relative darkness of the room made her squint and lift her uninjured hand to shield her face. A moment or two for her mind, body and eyes to adjust to the transition away from her power and she was on her feet. Moving towards where she had left her pack, she rummaged through one of the pockets. Pulling out a salve she had made herself and a strip of cloth, Aidara first smeared a liberal dollop of the salve onto her finger, binding it tightly with the cloth, to prevent infections. “Well, if you’re done, my dear, those droppings aren't going to clean themselves up, though I reckon you wish they would.” Val called from his corner. He’d watched the whole process, though it just looked to him as if Addy had gone into a trance. The woman never ceased to amaze him, but that didn’t stop him from giving her all the dirty work. A resigned sigh, and Addy went to retrieve the broom and dustpan from the closet, teasingly sticking her tongue out at the old man as she passed.

[Dreamcatcher]

Character: Aidara Experience: +1 Climbing, +1 Falconry, +1 Animal Husbandry Lore: Spotting your Bird in the Morning Sun Addition Awards: Starting Friendship with Val “The Gatekeeper” Additional Note: If you feel that I missed something please PM me with the details on what I missed and I will review it.